The GRAMMY Foundation and The Recording Academy are partnering to present their first-ever Music Educator Award. The award is open to U.S.-based music teachers from kindergarten through college, in public and private schools. Anyone can nominate a teacher, and teachers may nominate themselves. Nominated teachers will be notified and invited to complete an application. April Read more about $10K Music Educator Award Nominations Open[…]
In AEI’s Cage-busting Leadership and the Culture of Can’t, Frederick Hess argues that many district and school leaders operate under lore rather than legality. They believe their hands are tied, even when they are not, and implement restrictive policy simply because that is how it has always been done. Hess recommends that district and school Read more about “Cage-busting Leadership”: creative leadership for accelerated reform[…]
Recently, Joshua Starr, the Superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools (MD), one of the wealthiest, largest, and high-achieving school districts in the United States, went public with his idea that there be a three-year moratorium on federally mandated standardized testing. He is not fundamentally opposed to all standardized testing, but he does have a problem Read more about The Looming Clash between Common Core and Standardized Testing[…]
Last year, we posted about the emerging issue of whether or not teachers should be allowed to sell their lessons plans for a profit (https://www.coreeducationllc.com/blog2/should-teachers-be-allowed-to-sell-their-lesson-plans/). More recently, this issue has cropped up in the greater Washington DC area. Prince George’s County Public Schools has recently tabled a proposal designed to gain ownership of all material Read more about Could school districts own their students’ work?[…]
A Los Angeles High School is trying to prove that more individual instruction can be provided with larger class sizes. How might they accomplish this? Alliance Tennenbaum Family Technology High School hopes that blended learning, a model which for this school includes a third of their class time in traditional teacher-led instruction, a third working Read more about Los Angeles school Pioneers Blended Learning Model[…]
A new report released by Education First suggests that states have made “significant progress” toward Common Core readiness. Education First and the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center have released Moving Forward: A National Perspective on States’ Progress in Common Core State Standards Implementation Planning. A sequel to last year’s Preparing for Change report, this Read more about Will States be Ready for Common Core?[…]
AFT President Randi Weingarten recently reaffirmed the AFT’s commitment to increasing the standards for teacher certification. In a follow up to our previous post, American Federation of Teachers calling for an adoption of a bar exam for aspiring teachers, following are Randi Weingarten’s recent comments on the AFT executive council’s adoption of the report on Read more about AFT Moves Forward with Bar Exam for Teacher Candidates[…]
Aspiring teachers want more digital avenues for learning, says a new report from Project Tomorrow. The findings are included in the report Learning in the 21st Century: Digital Experiences and Expectations of Tomorrow’s Teachers, prepared by Blackboard Inc. and Project Tomorrow, which includes findings from the Speak Up for Aspiring Teachers survey of nearly 1,400 Read more about Technology and Teacher Preparation[…]
Yet another report on school reform has urged reform in the area of school leadership. This report, entitled, “Operating in the Dark: What Outdated State Policies and Data Gaps Mean for Effective School Leadership” and produced by the George W. Bush Institute and the Alliance to Reform Education Leadership. What stands out about “Operating in Read more about “Operating in the Dark”: Principal Preparation Reform[…]
If the Common Core initiative is to have a chance to take off, a new strategy of professional development, coupled with thoughtful evaluation is necessary. This is according to Peter Youngs, writing under the auspices of the Center for American Progress. This new strategy requires reform of the current system of teacher evaluation and needs Read more about Reform to support Common Core[…]
In the first of what will be an annual report on leadership, Education Week’s Leaders To Learn From provides fifteen profiles on forward-thinking education leaders. The importance of effective educational leadership goes almost without saying: Some research suggests leadership is second only to classroom instruction among all the school-related factors that contribute to student learning. Read more about Leaders to Learn From[…]
Big changes may be coming in the way the Department of Education selects grant recipients. Last year, the Office of Management and Budget issued a memo to federal agencies requiring them to demonstrate the use of evidence in their fiscal 2014 budget requests. This new requirement signals a shift of emphasis toward the use of Read more about Education Department Demands more Evidence[…]
Jason Delisle and Clare McCann at Ed Money Watch have put together a very helpful breakdown of what all of the Congressional complications surrounding the budget mean for education. We have shortened their summary into a few definitions of key terms to understand: Continuing Resolution: As of now, the US budget is functioning under a Read more about Federal Education Funding: What do we know?[…]
Free Webinar from All4Ed: Building on the Common Core State Standards to Improve Learning for English Language Learners Please join the Alliance for Excellent Education on Tuesday, February 26, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. (ET), for a webinar on how the transition to Common Core State Standards and Next-Generation Science Standards presents both opportunities Read more about Webinar: How can Common Core help ELL’s?[…]
In 2012, Microsoft announced a new professional development program called 21st Century Learning Design (21CLD), formerly known as “LEAP21”, that helps teachers build innovative pedagogical practices and develop resources for designing learning activities that foster higher order skills. It includes: practice-based professional development, so new ideas are used immediately in the classroom collaboration among teachers Read more about New Resources for 21st Century Learning Design[…]
A new partnership between the non-profit group New Leaders and Pearson Education seeks to improve the performance of school leadership through the use of technology-backed professional learning opportunities. New Leaders, the non-profit organization whose mission is to develop school leaders and promote system-wide conditions for student success, is partnering with the education services and technology Read more about Preparing School Leaders for Next Generation Learning[…]